[filoeleven]

On (2): It is often easier to have the organism do it for us.

Fungi are especially good at creating defense compounds like antivirals, antibacterials, and antifungals. This makes sense when you think about how they grow: miles of hyphae in a single square inch, and only one cell wall keeping the inside from the outside.

There are a lot of compounds that we don’t know how to synthesize, or where it’s so costly so as not to be worth it. Compare that to simply feeding a mushroom waste and waiting. Plants work similar wonders with chemistry.